As I've hinted in previous blogs, the food here on the island is exceptional in every way. There are numerous cafes and restaurants, as well as markets within easy walking distance of the hotel. There are even a couple of food trucks right across the street. One of them makes a pretty nice pizza that we've enjoyed twice. We have another week, but here's what we've found so far:
There are a nice variety of fruits readily available including citrus, bananas and strawberries, but when it comes to fruit the pineapple is king. They are smaller in size than the ones you would typically find back in the US (slightly larger than a large grapefruit) and they are juicy and sweet. The breakfast buffet here at the hotel has fresh pineapple every morning. The pineapples are grown in the Azores, just not on the island of Terceira. In addition to fresh cut delicious pineapple there are pineapple breads, pastries and jams that are all delicious.
http://www.azores-adventures.com/2014/01/azores-pineapples-unique-in-all-the-world.html
Homemade breads are offered up as a free appetizer or accompaniment with meals. One of our favorite little outdoor cafes serves up a wickedly good Alcatra (pot roast) sandwich on what they call "Grandma's Fresh Local Bread". We ate lunch there yesterday for the third time. We went in a different direction, ordering the grilled sausage (chorizo) that you grill yourself at the table on a small open flame clay pot cooker. It was ridiculously good and as with all our meals, inexpensive.
Beef, cheese and ice cream make up the holy trinity of bovine offerings. Clearly grass fed, happy cows make all of these products excellent. Luckily because of their availability they are also inexpensive. Hamburgers and steak sandwiches served on "fresh local bread" can be found everywhere for less than five dollars. The Alcatra, which is also referred to as "The Traditional" is slow cooked in a red wine for several hours in a clay pot and can be found on numerous menus. It's so good it would be tempting to order it everyday if there weren't so many delicious foods available for sampling. Last night we indulged at a "high end" restaurant (something we usually don't do) where the total bill was less than $50. In the US that meal at a similar restaurant would have been two or three times as much.
Being over 800 miles from any significant patch of land there are plenty of offerings from the sea as well. These include the standard fare such as fish and shrimp but a few more exotic things for the more adventurous diner such as limpets (sea snails) and barnacles (yep, the crusty things that grow on docks and seawalls). An order of limpets may find their way to our table before we leave next Thursday. Barnacles.............we're not that adventurous!
As far as beverages go, soft drinks and water are readily available but they'll set you back more than beer or wine.
It's getting to be lunch time over here, gotta go for now!
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| High tone for us, and well worth it! (Q.B. Restaurant) Steak and Pork Loin for the main entrees. |
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| Chorizo cooking on an open flame at O Internacional Cafe |
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| They're called Tremoco-it's a "bar snack". Kind of like a peanut served in Olive Oil and Garlic..........very tasty |
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| Hamburger and Fries at the Marina. Easily big enough to share |
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| Alcatra at Caneta |
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| White Sangria |
